LETTER: Meaning in “Hair”

Perhaps it is because I was part of the generation in the '60s that protested the Vietnam War and became angry over the 50,000 young men and woman who needlessly lost their lives in that war. Or perhaps it is because I saw "Hair" in 1969 (at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood). But the review of "Hair" by David Timberline made me mad.

While he is correct, the story line is thin — basically made up of vignettes meant to show the many aspects of the culture in the '60s and '70s — one needs to pay attention to see that the whole is much more than the sum of those parts. And when he concludes, "This reductive production — offered now when issues of war and individual freedom still are debated hotly — suggests that the converse fear may be true: that the era was about fun songs, crazy clothes and not a lot of substance," I realized that he had no idea what the play was about. Perhaps he needs to do more than listen to the music and start to pay attention to the words and the pain they represent.

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